True Colors
Heinz ketchup tried something unusual when I was a child. They released a product called EZ Squirt (really, THAT’s the best name you could come up with?). It was ketchup in unique colors. Purple and green ketchup. One was unearthly looking. The other made everything look spoiled. Aimed at children, the makers forgot that it was the parent’s that buy the product. It was quickly discontinued. I thought that was the strangest thing I have heard food wise. Then I found this story online. There is a town in France called Ribeauville that is known for making some of the best honey in Europe. They export this honey near and far. So, in October 2012 they were astounded when the honey started coming in in neon yellows, blue green and chocolate brown. It turned out that the bees were not traveling to the flower fields they traditionally visited in their quest for nectar. Instead the bees had found something easier. They had built a waste bio-gas plant that was receiving waste from the local M&M candy plant. The bee’s found their way into the containers of waste. The colored sugar coating was tainting the color of the honey. You can find pictures of the honey here.
So this multicolored honey and psychedelic ketchup got me thinking. There is a pretty solid lesson to take from this modern day analogy. Everything was fine and looked good, but the ketchup made things look unappetizing. It tasted fine, but it made what was below it look wrong.
The honey was tainted by the source the bee’s chose to take nourishment from. It was beautiful to look at, but ultimately contaminated by waste product.
This world operates much the same way. It will tell you that you need something, you gotta have it. This is what it takes to be cutting edge and a part of the latest and greatest. And All it does is cover up what really matters. In the same way it will do its best to distract and devalue you. It will tell you that you are not created unique, your value comes from what you can accomplish, and that you must be in control at all times. It will give you candy, or in the bee’s case, candy trash, and tells you it makes honey.
So where do you go for nourishment? What do you use as fuel in your life? What really brings you joy?
If we take our joy from things that fade and die, our joy will fade and die.
If we take our value from things that can be destroyed, discredited and defeated, our value will ever atrophy
If we cover ourselves in the latest, the greatest, soon we will be on the hunt for the next. We will never be satisfied.
If we fill our hearts with the byproduct of this world we will feel like byproduct.
That is not what God wants for you. That is why getting into your Bible is important. It is their the trash of this world is put into its place and you can find reassurance.
God created you:
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).
Your value begins with the fact that you are made by the hand of the Creator in His very image.
He redeemed you:
“knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19 ESV).
God was willing to pay the highest price in creation to keep you—the life of His only Son.
He brought you into His family:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5 ESV)
I want to remind you of the blessings of Easter.
You are not a mistake, an accident, trash, or damaged. You are not forgotten.
You are loved. You were made to last forever. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less.
If you ever doubt that, open your Bible, come to church, attend a Bible study. Step away from the junk, and be reminded of God’s great love for you.
Yours forever because God made us that way
-Pastor Dan